Mark Grisanti's Blog

New York State Senate Youth Leadership Recognition Awards

February is Youth Leadership Month and the New York State Senate is highlighting the occasion by encouraging participation in the Youth Leadership Recognition Awards program, which is designed to recognize the outstanding young students who will become our State’s future leaders.

The program is designed to highlight and congratulate well-rounded students who excel academically and have exhibited leadership through extracurricular or volunteer activities. Current juniors and seniors are eligible to participate. Students must be nominated by a teacher, administrator, counselor or other school faculty member. A student can ask a faculty member to nominate them or a faculty member can initiate the process by recommending a student deserving of special recognition.

Nominations must be submitted online and include an attached letter of recommendation by the nominating faculty member. The student will include general information about their academic achievement and activities and a short essay (maximum 500 words) describing their accomplishment and why it is significant.

Participating schools should nominate a maximum of five students deserving of recognition for the program, with the Senator selecting one student per school for their outstanding accomplishments.

The student will be acknowledged by the Senator and presented with a certificate of recognition and letter at a congratulatory ceremony. In addition, their story will be highlighted with those of students from neighboring high schools on the Senator’s website.